A Hazard Vulnerability Analysis conducted annually by Hillcrest has determined that, due to the agency’s location, potential disasters most likely to have impact on safety, care and treatment provided by Hillcrest Educational Centers are “natural disasters” and primarily those secondary effects associated with winter weather, and particularly electrical power loss at the residential program sites, and/or the ability of staff to travel to/from the work site.

In particular for the New England region, winter storms seem to be increasingly becoming emergency events and the U.S. is increasingly dependent on electrical-powered equipment as our aging electrical power infrastructure and distribution systems become more stressed from daily over usage.

DISASTER: A disaster is a natural or manmade event,
A. that significantly disrupts the environment of care (e.g., damage to program buildings and/or grounds due to severe wind storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, or earthquakes), or
B. that significantly disrupts care and treatment (e.g., loss of utilities due to floods, civil disturbances, accidents, or emergencies within the organization or in the surrounding community).

EMERGENCY: An emergency is an unexpected or sudden event, human-made or natural or in combination, that significantly disrupts an organization’s ability to provide care, treatment, or services, or disrupts an organization’s setting.

I. Purpose
The Emergency Management Plan is developed and implemented in order to:
• Ensure a safe and supportive environment of care for Hillcrest students, clients and staff.
• Ensure the efficient and effective provision of student care and treatment.

II. Objective
The primary objective of the Emergency Management Plan is to maximize the safety and well-being of Hillcrest students, clients and staff by preparing for, managing and minimizing destructive effects of disasters or other emergencies that have the potential to disrupt Hillcrest’s provision of care and treatment.
This objective will be accomplished through the following types of emergency/disaster associated activities:
• Mitigation – activities intended to lessen the severity and impact of a potential disaster or emergency.
• Preparedness – activities intended to build capacity and identify resources that may be utilized if a disaster or emergency occurs.
• Response and recovery – immediate and near future activities to be conducted in the event of an emergency or disaster.

Additionally, Hillcrest will accomplish this objective in a manner compliant with regulations promulgated by the Mass. Dept. of Early Education and Care (DEEC), Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), standards established by the Joint Commission (JC), and all other applicable laws, regulations and standards.

The areas in which all Hillcrest sites are located, including three campuses, the day program, and Central Administration office operations, are categorized as “suburban”. All have relatively easy access to the local resources detailed below.

The following local resources can be utilized to mitigate and/or respond to emergencies and/or disasters.
A) Local Fire Departments, local and State Police units – These well-coordinated agencies usually function as Emergency Management Agencies in the towns in which Hillcrest operates.
B) Local hospitals and medical facilities – Located in Pittsfield and Great Barrington. Additional medical facilities are located within manageable distances in various directions, for example, to the north (e.g., North Adams), east (e.g., Springfield, MA) and to the west (e.g., Troy and Albany, NY).
C) American Red Cross – Located in Pittsfield. ARC provides disaster relief coordination and services.
D) Lodging – Because it is a tourist and business area, there is a plethora of hotels and motels that can provide shelter as necessary.
E) Local private and public schools, houses of worship, and other large facilities which could temporarily house groups of people during emergency conditions.
F) Numerous gasoline service stations in close proximity to each campus at which gasoline for the emergency power generators can be obtained.

Each Hillcrest residential campus is equipped with between one and three emergency power generators that can be utilized almost indefinitely in the event that electric power is lost for any significant period. The generators are deployed so that, minimally, heat, light and some refrigeration can be maintained to insure student safety and relative comfort.

Each residential campus is equipped with one or more weather radios that are strategically located within ear shot of staff and which are left plugged in, with battery back up, at all times. Weather radios provide weather warnings and emergency notifications transmitted by the national weather service.

Each residential campus has awake staff and supervisor coverage 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, and all campus have communication capability supported by walkie-talkies that can access local emergency assistance channels. Additionally, all Hillcrest buildings are equipped with fire extinguishers, and all HEC dormitories are sprinkler equipped. At each campus, the residential and overnight shifts perform fire drills each quarter in the dorm buildings, and the academic shift conducts fire drills each month in all areas used as classrooms. Two disaster evacuation drills are conducted each year, and emergency preparedness training is done on a quarterly basis.

Therefore, response to fires, emergencies, disasters and/or other forms of hazards can be very rapid and efficient.

Finally, because the farthest Hillcrest campuses are only 30 minutes away from one another, the three residential treatment centers can provide shelter if necessary. These three campuses each have full sized gymnasiums, fully equipped kitchens, nursing staff, etc. The agency also has a fleet of vans and an assortment of utility vehicles which can be used to transport people, supplies and equipment if and as necessary.

According to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service, the following types of emergency/disaster events are statistically the most common for Massachusetts as a whole: flood, hurricane, snow, HAZMAT, tornado. However, based on the actual geographic location of Hillcrest Educational Centers, experience and history indicate that, of these, the “natural disasters” are the ones most likely to occur due to the agency’s location. Of these “natural disasters”, historically and statistically the ones most likely to be problematic to Hillcrest operations are winter ice and snowstorms, which sometime result in loss of electric power for relatively brief periods of time and which Hillcrest is adequately prepared to manage.

Transportation (planes, trucks, automobiles, trains and ships), structural collapse (buildings, dams, bridges, mines, and other structures), explosions, fires, chemical (toxic waste and pollution) biological (sanitation).

Analysis (low risk)
Given the location and nature of the communities and region within which Hillcrest operates, the potential for this type of disaster is seen as extremely low.

Discussion
NA
(Please also refer to the HEC Emergency Preparedness and Management Plan regarding Emergency Evacuation and Lockdown Procedures.
Please also refer to HEC policy on Workplace Violence)

Bomb threat/incident, nuclear, chemical, or biological attack, hostage incident, campus intruder/active shooter.

Analysis (low risk)
Given the location and nature of the communities and region within which Hillcrest operates, the potential for this type of disaster is seen as extremely low. Additionally, Hillcrest’s intensive direct care and supervisor staffing ratios and levels help to ensure student and staff safety and security with regard to these types of potential risks.

Discussion:
Due to the different geographical locations and varying physical plants across HEC, situational specific procedures can be found in the emergency manuals located at all HEC program sites.

1) Civil disasters:
Riots, demonstrations, strikes.

Analysis (low risk)
Given the location and nature of the communities and region within which Hillcrest operates, the potential for this type of disaster is seen as extremely low.
Discussion
NA

Communicable disease epidemics.

Analysis (low risk)
Given the stringency of state regulations and Hillcrest policies and practices pertaining to student immunizations and routine health care, as well as to policies and practices pertaining to staff health status and care, and the infection control monitoring done at each Hillcrest program, the potential for this type of disaster to affect Hillcrest is seen as extremely low.

Discussion
NA
(Please also refer to the Hillcrest Infection Control Manual and Hillcrest Policies and
Procedures.
Please also refer to the HEC Plan For Managing Widespread Infection Or Contagion and the HEC Pandemic Management Plan.)

1) Meteorological, Topological and Underground disasters:
Hurricanes and tornadoes, hailstorms, ice storms and snowstorms, droughts, floods, earthquakes.

Analysis (low risk)
For the most part, the potential impact of meteorological, topological and underground disasters is assessed to be low.
Hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, floods and earthquakes are historically and statistically relatively rare in western Massachusetts, and particularly in the local areas in which Hillcrest campuses are located. For example, the MA Emergency Management Agency states-that moderate to major earthquake activity occurs in Mass. only about every 50 – 70 years, with more serious earthquake activity occurring only every 200 – 300 years. Hurricanes in the region tend to affect western MA. through heavy rains, rather than destructive winds.

Of these types of natural disasters, then, those which have the highest potential for affecting Hillcrest are winter weather related events such as ice storms and snowstorms, and these tend to be most significant for Hillcrest when they affect the electric power supply and the ability of staff to travel to/from the work site.

Discussion
a) Loss of electric power is relatively rare (0 – 3 times/year) and, most commonly, for very short periods of time (less than one hour) when it occurs. These losses are managed using emergency power generators at each Hillcrest residential campus. The generators are positioned to insure safety, the maintenance of relative comfort for students, and adequacy of food storage.

In the event of loss of power at the day program, students can be transported back to their residences.

b) Staff travel — Thanks to the effectiveness of the local municipalities in performing snow removal and road maintenance activities during winter months, staff travel is rarely affected. When and if staff travel is affected for short periods (e.g., half a day), agency staff with four wheel drive vehicles can, have and will assist with staff transport to/from work sites, as possible.

Staff who are unable to travel home after work could be temporarily housed on campus, as necessary, separate and apart from students.

In the event of severely inclement weather, the day program would be cancelled, as it is when local public schools are cancelled due to weather.